Career Profile of Art Museum Curatorial Assistant

A Curatorial Assistant works full-time in an art museum's curatorial department, assisting the Chief and/or Associate Curator with collection research and exhibition preparation.

Education Needed to Be a Curatorial Assistant

It is mandatory for a Curatorial Assistant to have an M.A. degree in art history.

Additionally, having knowledge and experience in standard museum and curatorial practices, and understanding how the art world (of art institutions, galleries, artists, curators, auction houses) operates is needed.

In some situations, a Curatorial Assistant will be required to have a valid driver's license, along with a clean driving record.

Duties Required

A Curatorial Assistant provides support to curatorial projects initiated within the department. This includes gathering and analyzing art historical and scholarly texts, visual and object location information, and budgetary data, compiled in order to initiate and implement exhibitions.

For touring exhibitions, a Curatorial Assistant maintains the database, tracks responses, and consults with registrars, curators, and exhibition coordinators at each venue, helping to record all aspects of the exhibition while it is touring.

For publication, a Curatorial Assistant procures the visual images, captions, credit lines and rights for printing and publication purposes.

Skills Required

A Curatorial Assistant is a highly skilled communicator, in both oral presentation and the written word as preparing, writing, and editing curatorial texts are a major part of the job. Besides communication, meticulousness, accurateness, meeting deadlines, and multi-tasking are key skills.

A Curatorial Assistant is a team player, as working smoothly and effectively with a wide range of arts professionals, museum trustees and staff, artists and the general public, is necessary.